Emma 55 and 56 Months

On March 29th, something BIG happened in the Crozier family. Emma asked Jesus into her heart! Right there in the Trader Joe's parking lot. It was a precious moment to be a part of (even if her asking was precipitated by a discussion on hell). Emma is the most sensitive of souls and has been known to randomly burst into tears exclaiming she doesn't want me to die because she "will miss me so much." Sweet, sweet girl. Now I get to tell her we will be reunited again for all eternity! What a precious gift.

Emma is our adventurer. She loves to climb trees, rocks, statues and sledding hills. Her initial timidness rarely lasts for long and she's definitely not one to miss out on any fun (unless of course it involves getting water in her eyes - then she is most certainly, definitely out. You will never catch her without goggles on a slip and slide and the top of her head is ALWAYS dry when she emerges from the swimming pool). 

Emma LOVES preschool and comes home every day with all sorts of hand-made projects like the woodworking masterpiece pictured below. Her favorite station remains "the art cart" and she's graduated from drawing hearts every day to girls with long, long hair.

She's a classic middle child and sometimes it's easy to lose her in the mix. She often contentedly plays alone, bathing her my little ponies in the sink, or caring for one of her many stuffed animal "pets." One morning last month, I couldn't find Emma and eventually discovered her and her kitty "Skye" sunning together happily on my window sill.

She thinks riding in the Honda is THE BEST THING EVER and begs for me to take her for a spin in it when Daddy is home. 

Emma and Jack have a pretty special bond with one another. One evening, we were driving and I looked back to see this:

Though she claims to want to be a ballerina when she grows up, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up working with animals. She LOVES all things living (including her cousins' new chickens). She is fearless around them, even when the now-nearly-full-grown ones climb up on her shoulder. She is constantly updating me with her most desired pet of the day, ya know, in case I suddenly decide to go out and spontaneously pick up a meerkat or something (her latest choice). Other pet options include a baby tiger, a bunny or a crow. 

Emma is my most-willing kitchen assistant. She usually asks if she can help when I'm in the kitchen cooking and she isn't shy about getting right up there on the counter and diving in.

I often feel like I'm still trying to fully get to know this kid. Her personality is unique and awesome and a whole lot of fun. She's tender and gentle and appreciates all aspects of life. She's easily-excited, she's an encourager and she also has a bit of a stubborn streak. She insists on wearing long sleeves and pants and socks, all day, every day. No matter that it be 85 degrees. At bedtime, she adds socks to her hands in addition to the ones on her feet. When the nights are hot, she sweats and sweats in bed but absolutely refuses to remove a single article of clothing. Instead, she helps herself to a nice cold washcloth which she lays over her forehead. If I try to remove her socks in the middle of the night while she is asleep, I awake to find she has somehow managed to replace them. Silly girl! My new mantra is "some battles just aren't worth fighting.

I just love my girls! (And ice cream).

Emma and one of her favorite dogs, Louise. She thinks it is pretty much the best thing ever when she gets to hold the leash. We're so thankful for friends with dogs who help her get her fill!

I'm pretty sure Emma would accompany where ever I go if she could. Every night, she asks me "Are you going anywhere tonight?" and if my answer is yes, expect the floodgates to open. She happily runs errands with me all the time but when given the choice, she requests one-on-one dates at Starbucks. She loves to bring pencils and paper or paints and do art together at the coffee shop. Here we are attempting some "adult" coloring pages.

Earlier this month, Emma treated me (and my mom who had been babysitting earlier in the day!) to a special Mother's Day celebration at school. She went all out with the homemade gifts/art projects which included a corsage for each of us, tissue paper flowers, a hand print place mat, a canvas with a picture of her on it and tons more. Her class performed some special songs for us and, true to her personality, Emma waved at us excitedly over and over. When her teacher explained to the moms that the kids had set us each special places at the tables, Emma piped up and loudly told us that she had two places for us - mom on one side and Grandma on the other. And that she of course would be in the middle. :)

Here is the little project she put together about me:

I told you she only wears long sleeves and pants. Well, that and the occasional two-big onesie sleeper when gardening....

The other day we were picking up Isla from school when Emma ran up to me exclaiming "Some boy I don't even know just came up to me and kissed me right here!" And so it begins, folks, and so it begins.

Emma's other favorite pastimes include dressing up in frilly costumes, hanging out with her uncles and cousins, doing gymnastics (see video below), swinging on the hammock and borrowing other peoples toys. 

We just adore her!

 

Six going on sixteen

  This girl. She is strong and gentle; she’s a firecracker and a cheerleader. She is wild and all over the place and leaves ALL of EVERYTHING in her wake. She’s creative, she’s an entrepreneur. Doubters do not faze her – nothing is impossible in her little head. She is the kind of friend everyone wants to have. She has tons of emotion; she’s a feeler. She is a force to be reckoned with. She is six going on sixteen and she is freaking amazing.

Most day she blows me out of the water with her wisdom and mature perceptiveness. Her encouraging nature is a gift. Other days, when she is being flooded, helping her manage her emotions is a bit like putting ones face in front of a fire hose, the stream shooting straight up your nose.

Like for instance when she can’t possibly find ANY pairs of pants to wear to school. Which by that she means all of her 12 pairs either have pockets or tags or seams or some other unfathomable string hanging from them that make them absolutely UNWEARABLE.

Or like the times when she finds one of her “precious papers” in the recycling bin or that used popsicle stick she “was saving for a special project” in the trash. Or those times when she catches me literally running to the car with a cardboard box covered by blanket. She has a sixth sense, that girl, when anything is in-route to the thrift store. Sometimes we have to take teary pictures of her with her no-longer-a-baby baby brother’s toys to help her say goodbye.
Earlier this week, we hit a little speed bump in our morning when the sleeves for the T-shirt she wanted to sew BY HAND for the 6 year old neighbor boy BEFORE breakfast just weren’t working out quite right. And then her sister got the purple knife at breakfast. And some critter was eating our green bean seedlings and she just wanted green beans SOOOOOOO badly.

Despite our frequent (though less so!) rides on the emotional roller coaster, I am amazed at all this girl is capable of. 

Whether it is taking her siblings on a spin on the stand up paddle board all by herself or making a really awesome lemonade (scratch that, “LIMEanade”) stand complete with paper bunting out of items in the recycling bin. She is driven and she figures things out and when she has an idea, there is no stopping her.

She has an immense imagination and has a particular affinity for fairies and other imaginative creatures (leprechauns, tooth fairies and the like). In her dream world, one such character would come and live with her in one of the Lego mansions she constructs for them on a fairly regular basis. Just this morning she asked me what tooth fairies do if you lose your tooth while in Canada (where we are heading for the weekend). I love her!
 
Sometimes it’s easy to think she is letting her imagination get the best of her. Like when I find myself comforting her after she bursts into tears because no one has invented a computerized fairy that can talk to you and comes with a locking box and key for storing valuables. Her response when I told her these didn’t yet exist? “Have Daddy make one.” In her eyes, Daddy can make anything. J It finally dawned on me that she’s my little visionary. It can be awfully tempting to try and ground her with a reality check, but instead I’m really thankful for this realization and I love that I get speak encouragement into her life and tell her this world NEEDS people like her to keep the big dreams coming.

And speaking of encouragement, I think it her gift!! She has been an incredible source of unexpected support for me over the past couple months as I’ve been dealing with a couple of disgruntled neighbors. She checks in with me often and frequently writes notes like the following:

“Dear Mom, I am sorry you had a bad talk. Why do you think people are not caring about their own gardens? I love you! I love being in your family. Hope you feel better. Keep praying about the meeting. I am praying for you. Isla"

And then the other day out of nowhere in particular, she says: “Thanks for doing the best job you can parenting. I can tell you’re working really hard to be the best parent you can be.” This kid! She is a joy.

She can rapture a crowd in 30 seconds flat with her incredible leadership skills. She is making so much progress in reading now that she is beginning to be able to have story time with some of her peers.

Thanks for being in our life, Isla June. You make the world a better place.

Jack 29 Months

 Ask him if he's a baby and he'll be quick to tell you "No! I a big boy!"

 

And he's starting to live out his big boy-ness in his day to day mannerisms. We encountered our first clue that he was growing up when we went away for a weekend earlier in the month. We were surprised to have him toddle out of his sleeping quarters after we had put him soundly to bed in his pack and play. We figured his sisters had come to his aid and lifted him out but they were the first to tell us proudly "No, he did it ALL BY HIMSELF!"

And so was the beginning of the end. A short week and a half later, back at home, we could hear him sneaking out of his room to play in the bonus room, long after we put him to bed. His crib-scaling adventures were short lived and after 2 nights of offenses, we saw broken limbs in our future and quickly removed the front railing. Now he's the proudest little dude in his big boy bed and my picture reel is filling with photo captures of his freestyle sleeping antics.  

 

 

Though he does a great job of getting out of bed when we are trying to put him down at both night and nap time, he hasn't fully realized that he can get himself out in the morning hours too. Usually we wake to him yell-chanting some new phrase over and over. He does it in this sing-song yet monotone way that is difficult to describe but oh so very funny. First he began with "Sheet are weh-et, sheets are weh-et" over and over until we finally upped his diaper size to alleviate the issue. Now we hear things like "Nose is run-neeeee, nose is run-neeee!" Or "Nose is running again, nose is running again!" Then the first night in his new bed he threw us a new one: "Bed is broke-ken, bed is broke-ken!!" We hurried to his room to discover that, sure enough, his crib is not actually "convertible" and half his mattress had capsized onto the floor. It was sort of hard not to laugh. I have yet to capture his chants in action but I did get him to do a pretty good reenactment here:

I've said it on more than one occasion in recent weeks - I hope this kid comes with 9 lives! He's becoming quite the little dare devil as of late. We get to swim in the shallow end during Isla's swim lessons every week and HE HAS NO FEAR. I'm trying to teach him to at least count to 3 before he jumps in so I can do my best to be somewhere in the vicinity when he inevitably goes under. He will jump regardless of whether anyone is around to catch him - crazy kid!

He's also getting pretty adventurous on his tricycle and is taking it down bigger and bigger slopes. He loves going "so fast" and will be riding the length of our hill into the cul-de-sac by summer I'm sure.

He's pretty particular about his wardrobe these days. He favors long sleeves and jeans and has about 4 shirts that he finds acceptable. He takes his shoes and socks off EVERY time I buckle him into his carseat (once I'm in my seat and safely out of reach of course). It drives me bonkers. There have been days where I've put those darn things back on 4-5 times in the course of an hour when we are running errands.

His favorite color is blue and his favor animal is the tiger. His favorite vehicle is the school bus but he's busily planning his Gordon (the train) half birthday coming up in the next couple weeks. He also has a growing interest in "diggers" and all things construction. Lucky for us, our church just demolished one of it's buildings and he got to be there to see the digger in action. Each week we come, he's thrilled to see all the (de)construction.

Yesterday was a big day for us. I took him on his first bike ride in a child carrier seat attached to the handle bars. He LOVED it and wanted to "go so fast." I can't wait for many more adventures like this together.

He's definitely my snuggler and is always game to accompany with a good book and blanket. Last night he climbed into my lap and laid down on my shoulder and whispered "I love you" in my ear for the first unsolicited time ever. Graham was in the middle of reading family devotions and I interrupted so that we could all celebrate and savor the moment. *MELT*

If you're lucky, you might overhear him saying one of his other favorite phrases that he picked up from his sisters: "I the BEST. BOY. EVER!!!" We wholeheartedly agree.

Happy 4 1/2, Emma!

Emma turned 4 1/2 this week too! And now she is already counting down the days until she turns 5! She CAN'T WAIT to start Kindergarten in the fall and she is registered for FULL DAY which fills me with great excitement and trepidation. She loves school and is disappointed on the two days every week when she doesn't have it. Boy am I ever going to miss her though!

 Emma's half birthday comes quickly on the tails of Isla's and so quite often "her" menu ideas share a striking resemblance to what was served at Isla's celebration a few days prior. Emma did select an individualized dinner menu of pasta with red meat sauce and raw carrots sticks (and that was it!) but she mimicked Isla's breakfast of sprinkle pancakes. Well. With the exciting addition of raw carrot sticks to make it truly her own. Yum!

 Thank goodness she changed her mind and decided at the 11th hour that she wanted a rainbow cake. Her prior request was for a tiger and I fear I was about to sorely disappoint her with my lack of decorating skills. She of course wanted "chocolate cake with strawberry frosting, " just like her sister, and maybe I should have made it easy on myself and served the leftovers like I've done in the past. But when she changed her tune and asked for a rainbow cake, I knew I'd have to introduce her to the novelty that is funfetti. She. Was. Thrilled.

 And she said my cake turned out "just exactly the way she wanted" (phew!!!) which is amazing since I used ziplock bags with holes cut out in the corners to pipe out the rainbow. She definitely is my little encourager and know how to make a girl feel good, even when I feel like she might be stretching the truth a little. ;)

 I think this one has a little bit of athlete in her blood. She is so excited to begin a gymnastic course next week and still asks me regularly for ballet classes. Last week we were at a park and happened upon a soccer ball and discovered she is a natural! That made her half birthday present shopping easy and she is now the proud owner of an orange soccer ball (her favorite color). I'm hoping to get her on some sort of soccer team in the spring to see what she really thinks.

Emma asks a lot of really good questions. Like if it hurts Jesus when our heart pumps the blood through (since he is residing there, she wants to make sure he doesn't get squished!) When she's not saying funny stuff to make us laugh, she's snuggling up to us to make us smile. She is more or less easy going except when it comes to getting dressed or buckling into her carseat...

She loves babies and gravitates toward any little one who she can take under her wings. She also LOVES dogs and is so sweet and tender with them. Happy 4 1/2, Emma!

Happy 6 1/2, Isla!

 Our sweet girl has aged another 1/2 year!

She is beautiful and strong and a force to be reckoned with, both inside and out. She wasted no time in planning an elaborate half birthday dinner for herself and the Crozier side of the family. Her menu included cheese and crackers for an appetizer, mandarin oranges, "dumplings" (pot stickers), Sort of Thai Noodles and Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Frosting. Of course we made breakfast special too with sprinkle pancakes, balloons and a song.

 Isla is growing up in leaps and bounds. She comes home from school every day with new tidbits to share with us. Last month was a choreographed dance she and her classmates had put together to the song "Timber" by the artists Pitbull and Kei$ha. If you aren't familiar with it, save yourself the heart attack and DON'T Google it. As Graham reassures me, "She does go to public school after all..." THANKFULLY there is an edited version that I later learned was the one she was dancing to. It eliminates some of the questionable lyrics but not all of them...She and Emma can still be found belting out the following at random times: 

"It's going down, I'm yelling timber

You better move, you better dance

Let's make a night, you won't remember

I'll be the one, you won't forget

wooooo oooooh

Swing your partner round and round

End of the night, it's going down

One more shot, another round

End of the night, it's going down"

Oh. My. Word. Never judge a parent by what their kids say, right?

Isla is always always busy, a skill I'm afraid she learned from me. She runs a mile a minute at all times and is impossible to slow down. I am on my own personal quest to learn to relax and slow down and so I'm trying to teach the same to my daughter who needs it just as much as me. The other day we were reading about the story of creation and I was doing my best to hone in on the importance of the 7th day, when God rested. Isla, ever so incredulously asked me, "Why did he need to rest??! It's not like it was hard for him to create the whole world. He just had to say the words and point and it magically happened." 

Oh, my child. We have our work cut out for us.

On the flip side, we were also discussing why God created humans and without a moment's pause, she piped up "To glorify God!" That, my girl, is exactly right. Live into it my child.

 Isla's teacher reminds us frequently that her favorite part of the school day is WRITER'S WORKSHOP. She adores writing stories both at school and at home and recently coordinated a story-writing contest with all of her friends. She mailed letters inviting each of her selected friends to participate, complete with a yes or no check box tear-off portion so they could indicate whether they would take part. Of course she also included a return envelope. And she made individual prize ribbons and promised that everyone who submitted a story would be a winner. Oh. And did I mention that she did all this before 7 AM one morning??? She has become rather self sufficient at writing out her return address.

She making slow but steady progress with her reading too. Her favorite books right now are the Magic Tree House series and anything by Mo Willems. We bought her four of the "Jack and Annie books" (Magic Tree House) for her half birthday gift and she was thrilled. Typically I read them to her but I had her read me a couple pages the other day and she did it! She needs a lot of positive affirmation as she doesn't like to make mistakes (told you she's my kid!!) but she's doing great.

Isla is also an incredibly perceptive kid. She picks up on ALL of my cues and can tell when I'm upset or on edge. She sure keeps me in check, especially when she says things like "Sorry I'm stressing you out, Mom." You can't pull anything past this one, that's for sure.

  

She love, love, LOVES sticker charts and systems. Or at least the idea of them. She'll think of an idea in the middle of breakfast and then I blink and the next thing I know, she's run away from the table to the office to make a sticker chart to keep her (or her siblings) accountable to her new revolutionary idea. I wish I could say sticker charts the making of sticker charts translated into the following of them...but unfortunately it isn't the case. They help provide accountability but also result in a LOT of complaining.

We are working on our "morning routine" this month which involves room cleaning, much to her dismay. She's a lover of rules and order, except of course when it comes to her belongings. I would describe her as "explosive" when it comes to her stuff. She comes home from school and instantaneously, socks, shoes, beads, books. papers and pens spew from her in all directions into Every. Single. Room. Often times I feel like I'm try to plug a volcano.

This girl is definitely a maker and a doer and a lover of people and we love her. Happy half sweet Isla!

Jack 28 Months

I peer into his crib, my nightly ritual, watching for the rise and fall of breath. Every night since his entry into the world, this has been my practice. I wonder how long it will last. Years for sure, maybe even a decade. His sisters are 6 and 4 and I do the same for them. No there is no sign of stopping soon. When he sleeps, I am smitten. When he wakes, it is no different.

There are nights I come to check on him and, though his crib is small, I am unable find him there in bed. My heart skips a beat until I finally spy his tiny stocking toes, the only sign of him emerging from under his heavy blankets. Next to him lies buses, an entire entourage. City bus and 3 school buses, one with headlights aglow. There's moose and sometimes puppy too and the sounds of pouring rain coming from his sound machine. Before he sleeps, he asks for songs. "Wheels on the Bus" or the "Thomas Song" or "Inside Out one" are his favorites. Lately he asks for Emma, preferring she be the one to sing his night or naptime ballad. She opts for "Goodnight, sleep tight, dream dreams as sweet as you" a la Daniel Tiger and he never puts up a fuss when she's the one to put him to bed.

He is saying so many new lines these days that make me both smile and one or two that make me cringe.
"I love you, Mom."
"Miss you."
"What 'bout me, Mom?"
"What now, Mom?"
"I'm a big boy!"

"One! Two! Eyes on me!"
"No, you do it!"
"Silly billy!"
"Look at me, Mom!"
"I'm a Tiger."
"When's Gordon Birthday?"
"In April?"
"Snuggle you."

Our boy may have joined the club of all other boys and is now solidly obsessed with Thomas and Friends. Thankfully any old blue train passes as Thomas in his mind and Gordon will satisfy in a pinch since he is also blue. In our train obsession, we accidently ended up with a book from the library called The Potty Train and suddenly we found ourselves with a (slight and passing) interest in going potty in "the big boy potty." We jumped at the chance and are now the proud owner of a Thomas potty chair that choo choos when a deed is successfully done. Which has never happened. Alas, we have absolutely no interest in potty training anymore.

Jack is so excited to go to school one day. He is going to be heartbroken when he realizes we live too close to school to ride the school bus. In the meantime, he wears his owl backpack like a pro every time we drop Emma off at pre-K. I have to keep a close eye on him otherwise he'll throw his pack and coat in the bin and leave it there like the rest of 'em.

He has a new affinity for throwing balls back and forth and I'm trying to teach him it works to kick it too. Other favorite pastimes includes looking at books, going to Barnes and Noble, playing trains and riding our Plasma car around the house. We are so glad he's a part of our clan!